Dear Rabbi Bayfield,

 

I liked what you wrote in last Saturday's Guardian, "Religion is a bloody disgrace".

 

All religious "fundamentalists" tend to regard their sacred texts as the literal word of God and thus as an absolute and unquestionable authority, the only thing open to question being its interpretation, although it is well to remember that not so long ago mainstream Christianity and Judaism were also pretty fundamentalist.

 

Such belief seems to satisfy a deep desire for "certainty", which the "believer" clings to like a man in fear of drowning. Interestingly, they call it "faith", when in fact it demonstrates their lack of it.  I need "faith" to face up to my lack of certainty. If I had certainty I would have no need of faith.

 

As the original Abrahamic religion, from which Christianity and Islam are largely derived, Judaism has a lot to answer for!

 

Regardless of what we personally think about it, Abrahamic religion (mainly in the form of Christianity) has had such a profound influence on the development of western civilisation, and on us, its children, that it is virtually impossible to form an objective judgement regarding it.  Most (if not all) its theology is, to my mind, nonsense, but its influence persists. For this reason, and out of respect for my ancestors, many of whom I am sure were pious Christians (some perhaps Jews), I take Christianity and Judaism very seriously. They are a large and essential part of my history.

 

However, we need to see "revealed religion" for what it is - the work of men, not God - and to emphatically reject what is wrong or nonsensical in so-called holy scripture, which is "holy " inadequate for the modern world.

 

In the First Book of Moses there are two fundamental mistakes, which need to be corrected (rather than just ignored or glossed over), because they have had (and continue to have) a very negative influence on human behaviour.

 

The first is the claim that God created man in his own image. In fact, the very opposite is true, as was first pointed out by the Greek philosopher, Xenophanes. This fundamental misconception has had, and continues to have, profound consequences, which very few people seem to recognise or want to face up to.

 

Doing so would dispel the terrible myth of there being just one (concept of) God with absolute authority embodied in his holy word (e.g. the Bible), which has resulted in countless bloody conflicts and endless human misery. Instead, people would better understand that other people may well have a different (concept of) God and different authoritative texts (authored by fallible men, not by an infallible God), and see the sense of sitting down to discuss differences, and when necessary making changes to the authoritative texts themselves, instead to bending their meaning to the desired interpretation, which Jewish scholars in particular have made a fine art of doing. It is well intended and more enlightened Jews and Christians have made quite a decent God out of the nasty, vindictive old bastard depicted in the First Book of Moses, but fundamentalists see it for the fudge that it is, reverting (where it suits them) to the original, not so loving or enlightened, Word of God. 

 

There is no arguing with someone who has the word of God in their hand: they are in the right and that is all there is to it. The consequence is often conflict.

 

The Jesus sect were a cunning lot, trumping their own Jewish authorities, who had the mere "Word of God", with His "Son" -  for Christ' sake!! A very cleaver ploy - and it worked. Or did it? Not with the main body of Jews it didn't. They saw it for what it was and rejected it. Embittered the Jesus sect turned against its own people (the Gospels, especially John's, lets face it, are virulently anti-Semitic), turning to non-Jews not just instead, but also in spite. A classic, scaled-up example of infantile human psychology, hating your own for rejecting you. A misunderstanding, of course, since they were not rejected as Jews, just their ridiculous ideas about Jesus being the Son of God and the messiah. 

 

For a very long time, you haven't been allowed to say this out loud, for fear of offending the all-powerful Christians. Thank God their power has been so greatly eroded. I still don't want to offend them, but it is more important to say the truth, i.e. that their theology is largely nonsense, the "gospel truth" being more correctly described as the "gospel lies".

 

The second fundamental mistake is contained in the story of Adam and Eve, the first part of which expresses in beautifully symbolic language the most profound insight regarding man's situation, his emergence from the animal kingdom, but which then, tragically, goes on to curse him for it.

 

How different our history might have been if, instead of cursing us, (our concept of) God had praised us for taking the first courageous step away from our animal origins and towards becoming human, increasingly aware of the consequences of our behaviour, and learning (with God's guidance) to take responsibility for it.

 

Instead we have been taught and conditioned over centuries to feel guilty and ashamed and to deny our ability (and need) to take personal responsibility for our behaviour, looking instead to authority (to the Bible or wherever) to relieve us of the burden. And the "authorities", of course, following their "more animal than human" nature, have encouraged us, since it gave them power and a way of making a comfortable living.

As you will probably have noticed, I'm not much of a scholar - but a bit of a prophet, perhaps. Not a Jewish one (I believe you've banned them anyway), but definitely a judo-friendly one. It has not escaped my notice that countries which are good to their Jews tend to do well (e.g. pre-Nazi Germany, Britain, America), while those which are not, do not do well (e.g. Spain, Nazi Germany; Russia).

Greetings from

Roger Hicks

at www.spaceship-earth.org